Church communicators are very busy people. Not only do they wear many hats (graphic artist, social media guru, and marketing specialist just to name a few), church communicators offer a variety of skills that help their church fulfill its mission and meet its ministry goals. In other words, church communicators have an overabundance of responsibilities and frankly, they are quite often taken for granted.
In order to help out your church communicator, maybe you could don your Santa hat and give them some (or all) of these gifts that are sure to be on their Christmas list this year.
Graphic Design Help
Graphic design is one of those areas that can easily chew up a lot of time, which is something church communicators don't have nearly enough of. Thankfully, it’s easy to learn the basics of graphic design, which can be done through websites like Lynda.com and Treehouse.
When graphic design involves finding and downloading the perfect image, resources like Canva offer graphic design tools along with free graphics and sermon slides. Ekklesia 360 also has a variety of templates and free downloadable graphics.
A New Church Website
An outdated website, or worse yet, no website at all, is pretty painful for a church communicator. They understand how important it is to have a great website that offers a positive user experience and will bring more visitors through those church doors.
Church communicators also understand the need for a church website to contain certain features, such as:
- Mobile-friendliness
- Engaging design
- Online giving platform
- Informative content
If you could just give them this one thing for Christmas, your church communicator will be grateful beyond measure.
Technology That Is Created for the Church
There is plain 'ol technology for the average business, and then there is technology created just for the church. If you're wondering how to give this amazing gift, here are some specific technology-related things that are on the wish list:
- A Live Video Streaming Solution (ChurchStreaming)
- A Giving solution (e360 Giving)
- A Church Management Software (e360 ChMS)
This kind of technology developed just for churches, will enable your church communicator (and the rest of your staff) to work faster and more efficiently, which will free up time to focus on other ministry responsibilities.
Streamlined Processes
Are you using a communication request form? Can it be improved? Are your staff/volunteers being used effectively? Besides providing more effective ways to communicate, and using time more efficiently, streamlined processes also help to eliminate errors while keeping keep church communicators organized.
Are you using a project management system? If not, some great ones include Basecamp, Teamwork Projects, and Jira.
Social Media Help
Did you know that 85% of churches use Facebook? Also, more than 70% of nonprofit communicators think of social media as one of their most important forms of communication. As you can see, social media is very important for churches, but it can also take up huge chunks of a church communicator's time, which means help would be greatly appreciated.
Some things to consider when it comes to helping out with social media include creating a content calendar, utilizing certain publishing tools, becoming an admin for social media channels, managing each of the church's social media accounts, and simply engaging with the church’s posts (liking, commenting, sharing, etc.).
Community
It's true that a lot of church communicators feel lonely in their role. One reason is that they put in so many hours of work that it's hard for them to have a normal social life. Church communicators are also pretty stressed out, as they usually have a hard time saying no and don't always take care of themselves like they should.
To ensure they don't suffer total burn-out, encourage them to look on social media for church communications groups or connect with other church communicators in their area.
A Bigger Budget (One Can Dream :)
Let's face it, most church communicators have a wish list a mile long and the only way to get it all is with a bigger budget. If this isn't possible, take into consideration what things your church communicator absolutely needs and find a way to fit it in the budget.
